Department of Chemical Engineering, Villanova University, Villanova 19085, USA.
Chemical Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-6106, USA.
J Control Release. 2013 Nov 28;172(1):246-257. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2013.08.025. Epub 2013 Aug 30.
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is widespread amongst prokaryotes, but eukaryotes tend to be far less promiscuous with their genetic information. However, several examples of HGT from pathogens into eukaryotic cells have been discovered and mimicked to improve non-viral gene delivery techniques. For example, several viral proteins and DNA sequences have been used to significantly increase cytoplasmic and nuclear gene delivery. Plant genetic engineering is routinely performed with the pathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens and similar pathogens (e.g. Bartonella henselae) may also be able to transform human cells. Intracellular parasites like Trypanosoma cruzi may also provide new insights into overcoming cellular barriers to gene delivery. Finally, intercellular nucleic acid transfer between host cells will also be briefly discussed. This article will review the unique characteristics of several different viruses and microbes and discuss how their traits have been successfully applied to improve non-viral gene delivery techniques. Consequently, pathogenic traits that originally caused diseases may eventually be used to treat many genetic diseases.
水平基因转移 (HGT) 在原核生物中广泛存在，但真核生物对其遗传信息的交换则相对保守。然而，已经发现并模拟了一些病原体向真核细胞转移的 HGT 案例，以改进非病毒基因传递技术。例如，已经使用了几种病毒蛋白和 DNA 序列来显著提高细胞质和核基因传递效率。植物基因工程通常使用致病性细菌根癌农杆菌 (Agrobacterium tumefaciens) 进行，类似的病原体（如汉塞巴尔通体 (Bartonella henselae)）也可能能够转化人类细胞。细胞内寄生虫如克氏锥虫 (Trypanosoma cruzi) 也可能为克服基因传递的细胞障碍提供新的见解。最后，还将简要讨论宿主细胞之间的细胞间核酸转移。本文将综述几种不同病毒和微生物的独特特性，并讨论它们的特性如何成功应用于改进非病毒基因传递技术。因此，最初导致疾病的病原特性最终可能被用于治疗许多遗传疾病。
